Economics

In 2010, a group of Asian countries made major strides toward economic integration with the launch of the Chang Mai Initiative Multilateralization. This currency swap arrangement has had a major…

This week our guest is noted scholar and North Korea watcher Dr. Stephan Haggard. Dr. Haggard is a Professor of Korea-Pacific Studies and director of the Korea-Pacific Program at the…

At KEI, we mainly focus on the relationship between the United States and South Korea, and their approaches toward North Korea. This week, we're taking a different look at the…

Last week, we looked at the details of the new US and UN sanctions against North Korea, delving into the new measures to get at Pyongyang's funding. But will they…

The South Korean won has reached record lows against the U.S. dollar in recent days, just as heavy U.S. tariffs against what President Donald Trump says is an unsustainable South Korean trade surplus threaten the country’s exports. The issue, however, is not new. The won—now close to 1,500 to the dollar—was hit hard by the…

The first blog post of this series for the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI) assessed the propriety of the White House’s estimate of South Korean tariffs on U.S. goods and its imposition of reciprocal tariffs at 25 percent. There are several ways that the Donald Trump administration could have derived the number, but it…

The market roiled, web searches spiked, and the media was in a frenzy after President Donald Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs. Not surprisingly, the 10 percent baseline tariff on all goods with an additional “discounted” reciprocal tariff generated mostly negative reactions. As the president held up a large placard explaining that nearly every country…

The United States is poised to escalate its trade brinkmanship once again. On April 2, the Donald Trump administration is expected to unveil a sweeping new tariff regime under the banner of “reciprocal tariffs,” aimed at countries with significant trade surpluses with the United States—including close allies like South Korea. White House officials purport they…

As disruptions in supply chains continue, what practical steps can the U.S. and Korea take to strengthen supply chains against future crises?